Tuesday brings the Blu-ray release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition. Ever since The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, director Peter Jackson has been releasing one version of each of his Tolkien films theatrically, reserving a longer version for DVD. In the case of the Lord of the Rings films, when one book equalled one movie, the extra few time helped flesh out the stories and improved already fantastic films.

Since The Hobbit, which is shorter than any of the Lord of the Rings books, has already been stretched into three films, the theatrical version itself feels quite long and drawn out. Adding 13 minutes might not sound like the best thing and, in terms of pacing, it’s not. The Extended Edition additions, which are largely in the beginning and middle sections of the film, make a long movie feel eternal. On their own though, there are some great scenes in there including some ominous teases to The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings series was three films, shot on film, each well over two hours long, with groundbreaking special effects. They were nominated for 30 Oscars, won 17 and grossed about $3 billion worldwide. That’s a lot of money, which is why Warner Bros. wanted Jackson to return to the world with The Hobbit.

The Hobbit will also be three films. They’re shot digitally, in 48FPS 3D, and also feature incredible special effects and will likely all end up over two hours each. The first film, An Unexpected Journey, got three Oscar nominations and the second film, The Desolation of Smaug, will be out on December. The first film grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it the second most successful film of the franchise.

Lots of numbers there, but there is one set of numbers that aren’t so close. The original trilogy reportedly cost $281 million to make. The Hobbit trilogy has cost $561 million… so far. That’s not including post-production on the third film or reshoots this past summer to extend the series into a trilogy. Read More »

No one could possibly accuse Peter Jackson of not taking his time with J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit. The first film, An Unexpected Journey, took two hours and fifty minutes to cover about 100 pages of story from the book. In comparison, The Return of the King ran about half an hour longer, but its source material runs well over 400 pages.

Still, there will always be those who want to spend even more time in Middle-Earth. For them, Warner Bros. is releasing an extended edition of the film with 13 extra minutes of footage. Hit the jump to get all the details on the home video release, including pricing, dates, and special features.

One of the few complains fans didn’t have withPeter Jackson‘s first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey, was “it’s too short.” Clocking in at about 2 hours and 50 minutes, it felt like the story of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) joining a group of dwarves on a journey to the Lonely Mountain barely even began by the time the credits rolled. To be fair though, fans probably said the same thing after Jackson’s first Middle-Earth film, The Fellowship of the Ring. Yet when Jackson revealed the Extended Edition of that film on DVD, the added time enhanced the drama and character in many ways.

Jackson and his team are currently finishing the second film, The Desolation of Smaug, as well as the Extended Edition of An Unexpected Journey.Empire Magazine has some quotes about what exactly has been added to the first film. Will it enhance the film or just make it feel longer? Read More »

J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit unfolds decades before Frodo ever got his hands on the One Ring, but all the same, the three-part movie adaptation from Peter Jackson managed to rope in a bunch of familiar faces from the Lord of the Rings cinematic trilogy. Some, like Ian McKellan’s Gandalf, were part of the story as originally conceived by Tolkien; others, like Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel, were made to fit into the plot; and still others, like Elijah Wood’s Frodo, were included as part of a framing device.

All of which is to say that Jackson probably could’ve found a way to work in another fan favorite, Viggo Mortensen‘s Aragorn, if he’d really wanted to. Turns out, though, that the actor wasn’t having it. Hit the jump to read his comments.

In a weird way, special effects are never less noticeable than when they’re done really well. The best artists are able to blend the real and the unreal so seamlessly that it’s all but impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. So it’s cool to get a chance to see the painstaking labor that goes into enhancing these films, as we do in two new VFX reels for Looper and The Hobbit.

In a similar vein, we also have behind-the-scenes featurettes from Brave and Life of Pi, which not only explore the making-of processes but also offer commentary from directors Mark Andrews and Ang Lee (respectively). Watch all four videos after the jump.

Around this time every year, for as far back as I can remember, I pick and write about the ten movies I’m most looking forward in the coming year. Here on /Film I did it for the movies of 2011 as well as the movies of 2012 and, in the coming days, I’ll do it for 2013.

Before that, though, we thought it would be fun to look back at the films I chose as my ten anticipated for this year and see how well I did. Did any of these films make my top ten of the year? Did they at least meet expectations? Check out some of my embarrassing, and not so embarrassing, picks after the jump. Read More »

We’ve all thought about it. We’ve thought about it multiple times. When he’s on the top of Isengard. When they join fight at the gates of Mordor. When they save Frodo and Sam from Mordor in Return of the King. When they help the dwarves in An Unexpected Journey. Why the hell doesn’t Gandalf just ask the giant eagles to bring the Fellowship to Mordor in the Lord of the Rings or the dwarves to the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit? They seem willing to help, very strong and it’s not a big deal. Wouldn’t that have saved a lot of time, stress and lives?

Two artists think they have the answer. Not really, of course, but it’s funny nonetheless. Check it out below. Read More »

Today’s the day — over a decade after the premiere of Peter Jackson‘s The Fellowship of the Ring, the director returns to Middle-Earth with the first of three planned films adapting J.R.R. Tolkien‘s first novel The Hobbit. The films won’t adapt only that book, however, as Jackson and co-writers Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Guillermo del Toro have also incorporated elements from appendecies and supplements to The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien eventually devised a dense amount of parallel story to buttress the episodic adventure of The Hobbit, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey incorporates some of that material.

The film is also Jackson’s first film set in Middle-Earth to be shot on a digital camera and in 3D, and the first studio feature film ever to be shot and projected at a high frame rate of 48 fps, compared to the standard 24fps.

Suffice to say, despite the presence of familiar Lord of the Rings faces such as Ian McKellen, Ian Holm, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Christopher Lee, and Hugo Weaving, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is very much a different look at Middle-Earth. Germain has weighed in on the film itself, and I’ve put down some thoughts on the high frame rate presentation. Now, tell us what you thought of the film, below. Spoilers follow in the text after the break, and are encouraged in the comments to facilitate full discussion of the film. Read More »